October 2009

The Shape of Snakes

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Mystery /

I am such a Minette Walters fan. I can’t help it, she’s just awesome. Being such a huge fan, I have no idea why we’ve owned The Shape of Snakes for years and I’ve never made the time to read it. Until now. (Yay me, one more crossed off of the From the Stacks Challenge.)

A typical Walters book, a crime (or several) – a mystery – characters you love and hate and are a wee bit afraid of (even when they’re the “good guys”) Twists and turns.

This one featured…. race relations… London… Tourette Syndrome.

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Kitchen

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction, Queer /

Well that was disappointing.

I picked up Kitchen because it was a cute little paperback with an interesting cover, printed on interesting paper, the author’s name is Banana (cool!), and because I’d recently returned from BlogHer Food. I was infected by Foodies.

I picked it up on Saturday (or was it Sunday?) because it was due back soon and because it was short. I needed something short.

Oy. It was indeed short. Extra short since I didn’t read the second story tacked on at the end of the book. It was not really related to Kitchen and I figured suffering through Kitchen was enough.

OK Maybe suffer isn’t the right word. But it surely wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was weird and not in a good way. I kept saying “Huh? WT… Huh?” all the way through it.

It had transgendered people in it, for goodness sakes. I should have loved it. But I definitely didn’t love it. I’ll blame it on the translation.

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Spicey

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Foodie /

Years and years ago, TW’s mom sent us a huge box filled with spices. It was an odd gift, probably brought on by some phone call between TW and her mom where TW talked about not having spices she needed to make some odd dish or another. I dunno. The box just appeared and inside was the oddest mixture of stuff.

More cupcake/cookie sprinkles than we’d need in a lifetime.
A huge bag of cinnamon sticks (always needed in our house.)
Some weird thing called “cheese powder”
No salt seasoning
lemon seasoning

I could go on and on and on but I won’t. Instead, I’ll just link you to the site where this huge box of seasonings came from: Bulk Foods. Click through and imagine a box with dozens of this stuff. That’s what the gift contained.

Since then, we’ve ordered from Bulk Foods a few times, did I mention we always need cinnamon sticks? And cloves? We’ve always been very pleased with our order and I’ve mentioned them several times in message boards when I worked for WebMD’s old diet program (the Weight Loss Clinic.)

We were in serious need of cinnamon sticks and I kept meaning to order some but put it off and put it off and put it off. Instead, just buying a bottle at the commissary when I remembered that we needed some.

Finally, I got on the ball and ordered bulk cinnamon sticks from Bulk Foods (along with some other odds and ends that we needed.) I ordered it on a Saturday night and the darn box appeared on our doorstep on MONDAY.

Now I know shipping for us is quicker because they are in Ohio and we are now in Illinois but even when we were in Florida – shipping was QUICK.

If you’re looking for bulk spices (or any of the other bulk they sell) give them a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. That cheese powder stuff though, that was kind of weird and I’m not really sure what we ever did with it. Sprinkle on popcorn maybe? I don’t know – maybe TW remembers?

I’m not being paid to talk about Bulk Foods. I just really love them and thought it was time for me to say so on my blog.

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The Wet Nurse’s Tale

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

Oh look, another book we got at the library after we saw it at Women and Children First. TW forced me to read The Wet Nurse’s Tale. I didn’t want to. It looked like nothing special and I’m so far behind on my From the Stacks Challenge that I will never catch up. But she insisted and it was late when I finished Skyscraper. So rather than go out to the office and figure out what I was reading next, I just started Wet Nurse, because it was there.

And last night I stayed up to finish it. It wasn’t super compelling until the end. Before the end, it was just a nice little story about a young girl who becomes a wet nurse (and whose mother had been a wet nurse.)

The ending – I liked it.

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The Wordy Shipmates

1 Comment / 2009, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Another book we saw at Women and Children First. The Wordy Shipmates, I reserved on audio not having the remotest clue as to what it was about. All I knew was that TW wanted to read it and we hadn’t had an audio book for awhile.

Hah. Best audio decision I’ve ever made. Better even than the Ladies #1 Detective Agency books on audio.

At first, we just looked at each other in disbelief. The voice, the writing – it was our friend from BlogHer, Suzanne Reisman. But of course it wasn’t, it was Sarah Vowell but still… so, very Suzanne Reisman-like.

The snark! The glorious snark! And all of it directed at our Puritan forefathers. This ought to be required LISTENING for high school students. It’s interesting. Funny. Smart. I was sorry to see it end.

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Skyscraper

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

Skyscraper is a bit of pulp fiction by Faith Baldwin, re-released as part of the femme-fatales series, and I noticed it at Women & Children First a couple of weeks ago.

I’m a fan of woman written pulp so I reserved it at the library. It was the perfect read after finishing Say You’re One of the Them. Nice introduction and afterward as well.

If you haven’t read any of the old pulp fiction, or haven’t read any in a long time – check out the femme fatales series. Or anything by Faith Baldwin.

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mmmm Chocolate

1 Comment / Foodie /

Yes, that’s me making yummy sounds about chocolate. Yes that’s me behind the camera begging for chocolate. Yes that’s me stealing the chocolate covered ginger from TW’s SharffenBerger gift basket.

People. This non-chocolate lover LOVES their chocolate covered ginger and their sea salt almond milk chocolate. LOVE.

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